Field
Among other things, this disclosure describes systems and methods for providing an alert to an individual when an entity requests credit data associated with the individual.
Description of the Related Art
Credit data associated with an individual is often requested and considered by entities such as lenders, credit card providers, banks, car dealers, brokers, etc. when determining whether to extend credit to the individual, whether to allow the individual to open an account, whether to rent to the individual, or in making decisions regarding many other relationships or transactions in which credit worthiness may be factor. An entity requesting credit data, which may include a request for a credit report or a credit score, may submit a credit inquiry to a credit bureau or credit reseller. In some cases, the inquiry may be a soft inquiry, which does not typically adversely affect the consumer's credit standing. In other cases, the inquiry may be a hard inquiry, which may affect the consumer's credit score and be stored in credit data associated with the consumer. For example, when a requesting entity submits a hard inquiry requesting credit data for a given individual to a credit bureau, the credit bureau may provide the requesting entity with the credit data (which may first include authenticating the request), and may record the inquiry in the individual's credit file or credit data, such that the inquiry may subsequently appear in a credit report associated with the individual and be considered in generating a future credit score associated with the individual. Consumers are often advised to periodically monitor their credit reports in order to be aware of inquiries that may potentially be unauthorized or associated with identity fraud. However, there may be substantial delay between the time that an inquiry is received by a credit bureau and the time that the inquiry first appears in a credit report.